Question #1 came from the EBF website: (This question is from a person in Wisconsin.) Where can I baptize my children if the church is in Satan’s hands? I want them to be saved.
Chris: This is a good question. Once God ended the church age, He loosed Satan to enter into the churches. Since Satan is in the churches and seated as the “man of sin,” he is ruling; so what about baptism? Is baptism not required in order to be saved?
The Bible’s answer is, “No.” Water baptism is not required in order to be saved. What is required is to be “baptized with the Holy Ghost.”
Let us go to the last chapter in the book of Mark, Mark 16. If you have a Bible that says that some of the earlier manuscripts leave out the following passage, I would get another Bible. I would get a King James Bible. I know that some of the NIV Bibles say this. The reason for this is because this language is hard to understand. Let us read this in Mark 16. It says in Mark 16:15-18:
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
The churches have had a lot of difficulty with these verses. They do not know what to do with them because they do not have the right hermeneutic. They do not have the right methodology when they go to the Bible.
The Bible says that we are to compare Scripture with Scripture and look for the spiritual meaning. We are to make sure that our conclusions harmonize with the whole Bible, but the churches have a method of looking for the plain and literal meaning. They look for a plain statement. The problem is that if someone takes these statements from Mark 16 literally, they are going to get into big trouble. They might even die if they take these verses literally.
Mark 16:17 says again:
And these signs shall follow them that believe…
Those who believe are the children of God, and so these signs should be in evidence in the life of the child of God.
What are these signs? It says in Mark 16:18:
They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them…
I do not know of anyone who could drink some deadly poison and live. Maybe, by God’s grace, someone could do this and possibly live after being rushed to the hospital; but normally if someone drinks deadly poison, they are going to die. Normally, they are going to perish.
This is why those who teach that we are to understand the Bible by these plain and literal statements are very willing to go along with the NIV committee and its translators who say that some of the earlier and more reliable manuscripts do not have this passage in them. This solves the problem of them having to answer these kinds of verses, but we know that God wrote the Bible and that there is a spiritual dimension, and so we have to look for the spiritual meaning. When we do, we know exactly what God is saying.
Taking up serpents has to do with believers who go out with the Gospel and tread on the serpent and those who are with him, Satan and his emissaries. If we drink any “deadly thing,” it will not hurt us. This is because once we understand the Gospel, we have access to the pure water; but there are other gospels that are spiritually deadly. These gospels are deadly because when people believe these false gospels, they will die an eternal death.
Once we understand all of these statements spiritually, they make sense. We can see that they do follow the child of God. Wherever the believers are, these things will follow. Since these other things have to be understood spiritually, the same is true with baptism.
Mark 16:16 says again:
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved…
This is not referring to physical or water baptism. This is referring to the baptism of the Holy Ghost, as it says in Matthew 3:11:
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
This is referring to the cleansing of our sin by the Spirit of God as He applies the salvation that Christ worked out for His people. It is like the sins are burned away since Jesus had already paid for them. This is the baptism that we need and this is the baptism that we should want.
Water baptism never saved anyone. A lot of people have been baptized with water who are going to be left behind on May 21st, but the baptism of the Holy Spirit is salvation. This can happen without the sprinkling or the immersing of water. Salvation is when God applies His Word to someone’s heart and cleanses them of their sin whereby they are redeemed. This is the baptism that we need to worry about, and this baptism is only available outside of the churches.
Basically, there is a choice. In the church, people can have water baptism but no Holy Spirit. They can have the sign of salvation, which water baptism is. It is the sign of God’s Spirit coming and cleansing away sin, and so they can have the sign without the reality. Outside of the church, we can have the reality. We can be saved and our sins can be washed away, but we cannot have the sign.
It is obvious as to which one is better. It is better to have God’s Spirit cleanse someone from sin than for them to be disobedient to God and enter back into a church just so that they can have their child baptized? This makes no sense.
Thank you for visiting and for sharing your comments.
Question #2 came from the EBF website: I think you guys are crazy. No one knows when it is going to happen; only God knows. Did you talk to Him and He told you that it is going to be May 21st? Ha-ha! No He did not! God bless you.
Chris: Did we talk to God? Noah heard from God directly, and yet people say, “If God said to me personally what He said to Noah, which was, ‘For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth,’ then I would take action like Noah did. I would do whatever God wanted me to do.”
This is a lie. If they are not listening now to the information about May 21st being Judgment Day, if this is not impacting them at all, if this is not changing their life, if they are not living more and more to the glory of God, and if they do not feel a great urgency for the salvation of themselves and their family and for the need to get this message out to the world, even if they had been alive in the year 4990 B.C. prior to the flood and that would have happened to have been their generation, they would have been one who would have stood afar off and allowed Noah and his family to do all of the work. They would have been someone who probably would have mocked him and laughed at him and joked about everything that he was demonstrating in the building of the ark, because it is the same God and the same Word of God.
The only difference is that God did speak directly to Noah through a dream or through a vision, how ever it was that God brought that revelation to Noah, but God is speaking directly to us through the Bible. Both came from the mouth of God. Even though it is a different way of delivering the message, it is the same God and it is a very similar message that He gave to Noah, which is that mankind has until a certain time and then He will destroy the world. But it will not be by flood this time; it will be by fire.
Let us go to Psalm 19 and we will see that God basically considers us hearing information from the Bible to be as good as or better than when God spoke directly to the prophets. It is better because we have more information, much more. In Psalm 19:7-9, we read:
The law of JEHOVAH is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of JEHOVAH is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of JEHOVAH are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of JEHOVAH is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of JEHOVAH is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of JEHOVAH are true and righteous altogether.
Do these verses remind you of anything? God uses different phrases that all refer to His Word: “the law,” “the testimony,” “the statutes,” “the commandment of Jehovah,” “the judgments.” This reminds us of Psalm 119, which is a Psalm focused on the Word of God, the Bible, again and again and again in every verse. In Psalm 119, God uses synonyms for His Word, such as “statutes,” “commandments,” “testimony,” “the law,” “the word.” These are all synonyms for the Bible. This is the same as what we read in Psalm 19. Psalm 19 also uses all of these synonyms for the Word of God.
Then we read in Psalm 19:10-11:
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned…
“By them” - by the statutes, by the commandments, by the Law, by the Bible – “is thy servant warned.” The Bible has always warned man about his sin, about his need for a Saviour; but now God is adding a little bit more to the warning in telling us how much longer we have to receive this warning, to act upon this warning by going to God and beseeching Him for His mercy. It may be that He might save us.
God has now given us all of this additional information, so remember what Psalm 19:11 says:
Moreover by them is thy servant warned…
Then go to Hebrews 11:7. It says:
By faith [or Christ] Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet…
This is the very same thing. Noah was “warned of God of things not seen as yet.” It is by the Bible. “By them” - by the statutes, the Law, the commandments – “is thy servant warned.” “By them” we are warned “of things not seen as yet.”
It is pretty easy for man to joke, to laugh, to make light of the Word of God, and to “neglect so great salvation.” It is very easy for man to do this when God’s judgment is not here yet, when they cannot see it yet. But God said the same thing to Noah. He told Noah that he had one hundred and twenty years. Noah believed God because God gave him the grace to believe. Noah then worked and worked and worked on the ark, while no one saw any evidence of any flood coming upon the earth; but Noah knew that God was true, that His Word was trustworthy, and so he acted upon that. Then God came and gave him much more specific details by giving Noah the very year, month, and day. He told Noah that the flood would begin on the 17th day of the 2nd month of his 600th year. God then gave him the warning of one week in advance.
So Hebrews 11:7 goes on to say that because of this warning, Noah:
…moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
The question for us is whether or not we are being “moved with fear,” because we are also being warned “of things not seen as yet.” Are we moving and acting upon this? Are we responding to this information?
We are not responding correctly if we are responding in a way where we just continue on with our lives as usual. This is a wrong response. The Ninevites did not respond in this way. They allowed the information of a date to affect them, “Yet forty days.” They could have circled this date on a calendar. They could have marked it in red; because from the time that Jonah had entered Nineveh, he told them, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.” It was by the grace of God that He sent this information in advance to the Ninevites; because after hearing about this, it interrupted their lives. This is one way that we can understand about them sitting in sackcloth and ashes and fasting and crying mightily to God. This information interrupted their lives.
It says in the Gospels that when Christ comes, on the contrary, people will be “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage.” In Luke, it says that there will be planting and building until that day. There was normal activity in the world prior to the flood and there will be normal activity in the world prior to Christ’s return. There will be individuals whom God will move to save; but in the world itself with all others, there will be normal activity.
I like baseball; I do. I like reading about baseball. They are talking about the coming season. They just went to spring training; but you know what? They are not going to go past May. There will not be any pennant races this year. There are not going to be any playoffs. There is not going to be a World Series. We can also forget all about football; it is done with. It is done with, because we know the date. We have been forewarned.
When we look at a lot of the world’s plans, this is how it is with many, many things in this life. For example, what about summer vacation? Did you put money down to get a house on the shore yet? I have for several years, but not this year. Someone whom I do not normally deal with called me from the realtor’s office. She wanted to know if I wanted to put money down on a vacation home this year. We normally go on vacation around the end of May or early June to beat the season rush, plus it is cheaper at that time; but I had to tell her, “No; not this year.” She then wanted to know if she could ask why. I then asked her, “Have you heard anything about May 21, 2011?” She said, “Yes, I have.” Then she started laughing. I think that she laughed because it is just so unbelievable to the world that this is a possibility. This is just beyond the realm of possibility, because the world does not believe the Bible. They certainly do not trust the Bible.
For us, for the people of God, it is not business as usual. It is not life as normal. This impacts us and we have to change accordingly. We cannot make long-range plans. If we have funds sitting in retirement accounts, what is going to happen to this money? It is going to go to waste; and so the believer is realizing these things.
With more exactness, we are like someone who went to a doctor and was told that they only had so many months to live. He then went and got a second and a third opinion. Each time, he was told that he was definitely going to die. He was told that he had a terminal illness with only a certain amount of time left to live and that was all.
Would this information not impact this person? Would this not change you? If you really, really thought about only having three months to live, would this not change you? Well, maybe intellectually you might agree with this information on May 21, 2011; but if this is not changing you, it is probably because you do not really, honestly, and deep-down believe this.
Thank you for sharing your comments.
Question #3 is from Paltalk: In Leviticus 8:23, why was God so particular to tell Moses to put some blood on the tip of Aaron’s right ear and upon the thumb of his right hand and upon his big toe on his right foot? Why was God so particular in having it done this way?
Chris: Let us read this. We read in Leviticus 8:23-24:
And he slew it; and Moses took of the blood of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot. And he brought Aaron’s sons, and Moses put of the blood upon the tip of their right ear, and upon the thumbs of their right hands, and upon the great toes of their right feet: and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about.
The blood is definitely pointing to Christ’s sacrifice. This is being applied to the priests and to the sons of Aaron. It is being put on their ear, on their thumb, on their toe.
I think that this points to what God does when He saves us. David wrote in Psalm 51, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Remember also that it was with hyssop that they put the blood over the doorposts in Egypt so that the firstborn within the houses would not die; God passed them by.
So this is an application to the priests. It is probably pointing to the true believers. As God’s sacrifice is applied to us, this affects our hearing. This also affects our will, as the thumb is part of the hand and the toe is part of the foot. Remember that Jesus said, “Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee.” This indicates that the will of an individual needs to be cut off, our stubborn and prideful will. I think that it would relate to this.
Thank you for that question.
Question #4 is from the fellowship: I was wondering if this could relate to the rich man who wanted the poor beggar to dip the tip of his finger in water?
Chris: That is an interesting tie-in. Let us go to Luke 16. It says in Luke 16:23-24:
And in hell…
This is typifying the grave. It continues:
…he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
This is referring to the water of the Gospel, and yet this is the time when the rich man and all of those who are typified by him desire water. They want the water of the Gospel.
Remember earlier that Lazarus was at the rich man’s gate “desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.” The gate is where people go in and out, and so the rich man himself would have gone by Lazarus, this poor beggar, probably often; but he had no time for him at all. Maybe he did not even notice him most of the time. He certainly would have had a very low opinion of this beggar.
This is a good picture of the believers in this world. We are not very highly esteemed in the world’s eyes. If we look at a ladder representing those at the top and those in the middle, there are those on the very bottom. We are below that.
When we are standing on the corner with a sign indicating this date and we are handing out tracts, just think of how lowly-esteemed you might think of someone who is standing around handing out flyers. Do we not often walk by someone who is doing this? We have no time for them, do we? But at least they are getting paid. We are doing this on a volunteer basis.
So in the mind of the world, we are even worse. We are spending our free time and effort in getting out these tracts. This is why so many people feel comfortable casting revilings our way with the smirking and all of the things that can be said to us. We are like an abomination to the world.
The rich man saw Lazarus and never had a moment’s time or interest in him. There was no communication between them while they were both living. All we know is that there was a rich man who was living it up, and then there was this beggar who had hardly anything. Then death comes to both and we find that the rich man is in the grave.
This is a parable, of course, and so God is allowing him to speak; but the truth is that when someone is in the grave, they are dead; there is no conscious existence anymore. Since this is a parable, Jesus is just saying that if it were possible, this would be the communication.
Torment is also spoken of in this parable, so we can probably understand that this is also related to the five months of torment and that this will be the mindset of those who will be left behind. At that time, they will finally want the Gospel. They will then want the mercy and the grace of God. It is then that they will want peace with God. It is then that they will want the slightest drop of the water of the Gospel.
In essence, they will be saying, “Yes, Father Abraham, send Lazarus, that filthy beggar. If he comes with the slightest drop of water on his finger,” indicating that this could be applied to their lips, “I would lick this off of this filthy beggar’s finger.”
This is showing that those left behind will have a great desire for the Word of God, for the Bible. This is going to be the case after May 21st. At that time, this will be a great desire.
In Luke 13:24-25, it says:
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door…
This is saying that there will come a time when many will seek “to enter in at the strait gate.” This is not referring to the broad way that is spoken of in Matthew 7. Many go this way, the way “that leadeth to destruction.” “Few there be that find” the narrow way.
The time that is referred to in Luke 13:25 is:
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door…
When will the door of salvation be shut? It will be shut on May 21, 2011. On May 21st, many will be saying on that day, “Lord, Lord!” Many who will be left behind will suddenly and instantaneously then want to go through “the strait gate.” At that time, their attitude will be, “Whatever You say, Lord; whatever You say that Your Gospel is.” For now, everyone is arguing with it.
Those who are in the churches are now complaining about God’s Gospel. They do not like how God has worked things out for Judgment Day to come on a certain day with five months remaining of torment on this earth. They do not like that God’s plan of judgment is to annihilate sinners. They do not like that Christ was slain from the foundation of the world and that this is when and where He made payment for sin.
Many, many professed Christians are disputing with Him. We can hear this as we listen to Family Radio’s “Open Forum” program, and yet they are not really disputing with Mr. Camping; they are disputing with God, because this is coming from the Bible.
In our day, the Gospel is hitting resistance, resistance, resistance, but then comes the day when the door shuts. Then it will be too late. It is then when these people will want the Gospel on God’s terms, “Whatever You say, Lord; whatever You say; just give me a little mercy,” but it will be too late. It will be too late. It will be an impossibility because there will be a “gulf fixed” between Heaven and earth, an earth which has become a graveyard. The Bible says that there will be “a great gulf fixed” that no one can go between, because the door will have been shut.
So Lazarus will never come with that drop of water on his finger. He will never make it back to earth, neither will any other messenger of God.
At this time, God’s messengers are fairly plentiful and the Gospel waters are overflowing on the earth. There is an abundant ocean that is covering the world through a ministry like Family Radio that has radio stations, shortwave broadcasts, Internet, satellite broadcasting, as well as who knows how many people handing out tracts, and so on. At this time, the Gospel is covering the earth. There is so much Gospel water, and yet the people have no time for it. When this is all gone, then they will want it. Unfortunately, this is the nature of fallen man. After the judgment, after the fact, then man will want to do things God’s way.
This is just like Israel’s spies who were sent to spy out the land of Canaan who came back with an “evil report.” It was then that God pronounced judgment against them, “After the number of the days in which ye searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year.” Right away, they were willing to then go up to the land that God had instructed them to go to, saying, “Lo, we be here, and will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised,” but Moses told them, “Go not up, for the LORD is not among you.”
There was a window of opportunity for this commandment when God wanted them to go into the land, and then this window was closed. It was then that they wanted to be obedient to the first command; but when the door is shut and the opportunity is gone, this then becomes disobedience.
We will stop here.